Temperature-sensitive polymers Pluronics

Thennosensitive polymers have been developed extensively over the past years l-4. In particular, polymers showing a sol-gel transition by temperature change have been proposed for an injectable drug delivery depot [5,6]. As an example of temperature sensitive polymers, aqueous solutions of commercially available poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO Pluronics (BASF) or Poloxamers (ICI)) demonstrated sol-gel phase transitions with increasing temperature. 

The last session Waterborne Polymers included 8 presentations. There were discussed the next problems synthesis of smart nano-hydrogels, influence of adsorbed polymers on keratin surface properties in an aqueous environment, pH- and temperature-sensitive microgels for stimuli controlled emulsion stabilisation, industrial application of mini-emulsion polymerization in the coating field, PLURONIC block copolymers in balanced microemulsions. 

The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of Pluronics [121] has been found to be rather sensitive to temperature, which is ascribed to the changes in hydrophilicity of the ethylene oxide moiety with temperature. As shown already, monolayer viscoelasticity is correlated with the hydrophilicity of polymer backbones such as in polyethers, and that of the pendant group in vinyl polymers. It has been shown that PPO acts differently as a polyether... 

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